Unwavering Belief: Jack Frost meets his match
by Angel of the Surf
Summary: Jamie's sixteen old cousin Bethany comes to live with his after loosing her parents. It doesn't take long for Jack to feel a connection with Bethany who not only believes in the Man in the Moon but she also believes in the Guardians, even Jack Frost. However Pitch comes back to destroy Bethany's belief no matter what; can Jack and his fellow Guardians protect a teenage believer?


Chapter One: A Chance Encounter

One Part: Jack's Prospective

* * *

Jamie and I were playing in his yard since it was getting dark out; his mom worried about him lot especially since Easter. That was six months ago and what she didn't was that thanks to her son the Guardians didn't lose to Pitch Black also known as the Boogey Man; Jamie's belief in me was the turning point but I digress... Jamie's mother made a strict rule of no leaving the yard unless she knew **_exactly where he was. _**Then again Jamie's mom and the rest of the kids who helped save the world from another Dark Age was in big trouble with their parents when they were discovered missing the morning after Easter.

"Jack? C'mon pay attention!" Jamie complained when he noticed my mind began to wonder way from our game of tag.

Before I could response though Jamie's mother came running out of the house crying. I swiftly moved out of her way so she could get to her son (although that wasn't necessarily since she could walk right through me), watched as she hugged Jamie tightly to her and slowly her sobbing stopped.

"Jamie... Your Uncle Kenny called a few minutes ago and he had some bad news..." Jamie's mom- Mrs. Bennett took in Jamie's face before continuing, "Your Uncle James and Aunt Kathy died... Your cousin Bethany was badly hurt but she'll make it through."

Jamie's face suddenly filled with of sorrow and curiosity, "Mom, what happened? How did they die? Where's Bethany?"

Mrs. Bennett sighed standing upright before explaining what had happened, "They were in a car crash; there was a bad storm and Uncle James lost control of the car..." Her voice trailed off.

"What about Beth? Is Bethany really going to live?" Jamie asked as tears started to fill his eyes.

"Oh... Of course she is honey... I'm sorry I should have mentioned that she is only in a coma state; she has several broken ribs and a slight concussion but that's all. Actually it's quite odd that she wasn't hurt worse but she will pull through." Mrs. Bennett said in a soothing voice before bending back down to Jamie's eye level, "Bethany asked if you watched her competition before the doctor gave her some medicine to keep her asleep. She doesn't about her parents yet."

I gazed at Jamie to see if I should go or stay however Mrs. Bennett turned and walked right through me before I could ask. Every time that happens it hurts but not as bad as watching cry. I looked at the nine-year-old boy in front of me; light brown hair- a family trait from his mother side of the family- and then I looked into the brown eyes that were now filled with tears.

"Jack... I... Could you ask Sandy to make sure that Bethany has good dreams?" Jamie pleaded with sad eyes, something that no good Guardian of Fun could ignore.

"Of course buddy." I agreed. I mostly didn't want to see him worry about his living and breathing hero.

After the battle with Pitch I came and checked on Jamie a lot fearing that he may have stopped believing in me. I know that the other Guardians told me not to get close to the children because they grow up… However they didn't spend the last three hundred years alone. I did and that was awesome but extremely lonely. Thanks to Jamie though that changed everything did. I became Guardian thanks to him and his friends. Anyway it was Bethany's phone conversion that kept Jamie's belief unbelievably strong when all the other kids in the world stopped believing in North (Santa Clause), Bunnymund (Easter Kangaroo-Bunny), the Tooth Fairy or Tooth (to her friends), and of course Sandy but everyone knows Sandman. Jamie explained that when there wasn't any Easter egg and his friends gave up hope on finding any that he turned to the one person he knew could help him- cousin Bethany.

"Thanks Jack, you're the best." Jamie said before tackling me with a hug.

"Hey, you'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?" I asked knowing that Jamie would if he was in my shoes (well if I had shoes he would be).

Jamie abruptly stopped the hug and looked up at me with a small smile, "Yeah of course I would."

I nodded and let the wind pick me off the ground so I could find Sandy as fast as I could. I knew that maybe I should have said something like a farewell but I'd be back to let Jamie what happened with Sandy as soon as I could. Right now I have to find the golden man as soon as I could?

* * *

Part Two: Bethany's Prospective

* * *

It was dark and Uncle Kenny had left two hours ago which meant that drugs the doctors had pumped into my system was slowly beginning to take affect. I'm not sure what happened but I do remember my ice skating competition which I entered because my little cousin Jamie said that I'd win hands down and he was right. It was televised by Burgess's local news station thanks to Uncle Kenny being a famous author and definitely my biggest fan (who would never ask an old friend of his to report on my skating). I was beginning to wonder if anyone would tell me where are my parents are.

"I want to sleep but I can't." I yawned as I turn my head just enough to see the first few stars coming out and I noticed some golden…. I think sand?

"Must be the Sand man." I yawned as eyes noticed the moon, which was big and round in the night sky.

I know it's childish but I still believed that there was a man living in the moon but I didn't have many friends since my parents and I moved to Michigan. For the first six years of my life I lived in a little town in Pennsylvania called Burgess that was my hometown; it was there that I started to believe in the Man in the Moon. It was like how I believed in the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy or Santa or even the Sand Man it was part of my childhood. For me though it didn't last very long though… My Aunt Maggie's husband died when I was twelve; my Uncle Richie was like a second father but more importantly he was my dad's best friend. Since Uncle Richie was sick dad has never been the same neither was I so I made it my personal mission to make sure that his kids were happy. Especially my cousin Jamie who thought of his dad as an indestructible hero was devastated but sweet little Sophie was spared the pain of loosing her dad.

My parents, Aunt Maggie, and Uncle Kenny (the youngest Bennett boy- at least when it came to his siblings) had barely kept in touch over the years except when I had skating competitions. I love to ice skate and then I turned my fun little hobby into a "career" which turned out to be very successful. I just place third in my divisions competition and I made Jamie a promise that if I placed this year that I would retire, then spend as much as I could playing with him during the breaks from school instead of practicing for the next competition.

I just want to keep that promise to him. I kept repeating that in my mind over and over again in my mind until I felt my eyelids just extremely heavy, "The medicine must be kicking in." I thought for myself when I looked the window again and saw a golden man standing on a cloud made of sand talking to boy about my age who was walking on a phone line with no shoes.

The boy was wearing brown pants of some sort and a dark blue hoodie. His hair was white or a bleached blonde? At any rate he seemed to talking awful fast about something urgent. Before I could think about what I was suddenly asleep.

* * *

Part Three: Jack's Prospective

* * *

By I got to Michigan where Bethany lived I was shocked to see that Sandy was delivering sweet dreams all over city where cousin Bethany was. I followed the streams and/or ribbons of dream sand to Sandy himself. The golden man turned and tipped a hat made of his sand at me as soon as he saw me.

"Hey, Sandy. I've a favor to ask… On Jamie's behalf his older cousin Bethany, she was in a car crash and is in some sort of forced coma?" I have no idea why I'm nervous, "Jamie would like her to have sweet dreams."

Above Sandy's head there was an image of a girl playing tag with a little boy, which roughly translated to Jamie's cousin Bethany the one who always played with him.

"Yeah that's the girl." I grinned at Sandy's excitement at the menation of her name, "I take you know her really well then."

Sandy motioned for me to follow him and I did knowing that I was about to see the infamous cousin Bethany. Jamie and Sophie would always drop everything to just talk to this Bethany. I've been told that she was pretty, smart, funny, and loved anything winter. Jamie and all of his friends would go on about how she loved to play. I'd be lying if I said that I wanted to see her, the truth is I want to meet her.

"So this girl is some sort of believer?" I asked Sandy who answered with a series of figures above his head.

"Ah… Could you slow down? She was fantasied with the Kangaroo, Tooth, and North? She stills believe in you and… Who?" I asked trying to make sense what Sandy just said.

Sandy stopped suddenly a huge building that had lights on; we were at the hospital. I landed on the phone lines as Sandy led me to a window on the second floor that had a perfect view of the full moon; the girl in the room was looking at the moon as if there was speaking to her and that's when I struck with a thought.

"Bethany, believes in the Man the in Moon? Manny? Are you kidding me?" I asked with a lot of mixed feelings filling my voice.

Sandy nodded yes several times. I looked in the window to see that Bethany had fallen asleep so I flew to the window for a closer look. Bethany had brown hair same as Jamie and she was smiling in her sleep. As the moonlight filled her darken room I noticed that she dreaming of Jamie, Sophie, and Burgess, more specifically my pond. **_A girl was dreaming of my pond!_**

I turned to see Sandy silently laughing at my reaction; I felt bad that she didn't what had happened to parents but right now she was happy at the moment. Bethany was just Jamie but older with a lot more responsibility from the looks of her dreams. It was like she saw herself as Jamie's older sister that explained why Jamie felt the need to make sure that she had good dreams. I couldn't help but to feel a little of kindred spirit with this girl.

"I guess I'll go tell Jamie that his cousin Bethany is dreaming happily." I said to Sandy before letting the wind carry me off to Burgess.

Sandy waved good-bye to me. I knew he'd take a special interest in Bethany because she needed plenty of rest so that meant dreams. I hoped that she could handle hearing what had happened to her family because she seemed to be a child at heart. I know that she'll be protected; the Guardians (myself) included wouldn't let a believer down. After that's our job to protect the world's children.


End file.
